Star 2099
by JM West
Summary: A woman goes mysteryously missing while in a scientific college. When she is found wondering the back streets of a city at night she dies in an hour. Meanwhile, a comet strikes earth in the same city. Scientist begin to believe the comet can cure diseases


STAR 2099

The wind blew softly through the fall leaves in the floor of Dormaski Park. They were so many hues, red, yellow, many colors.

The trees were naked and cold. The park looked completely haunted. Just like many people in Providence thought that it might be. Not that it was, but just many people thought so. Like a graveyard on a hilltop. The waves crashing against the beach just made it more spooky. 

No one was at the beach at midnight, just maybe a dog or cat. Not tonight though. Someone else was there too. Was it a ghost? No stupid, it was a man named Gustav Knieginfork. He was just a miserable detective in his early forties, bushy blond hair, and a thick bushy mustache. He had crystal blue eyes, like those of a cat. Gustav was a average height man at six foot, two inches. He was also muscular.

Gustav was a lonely man with two college daughters, who lived in Manchester. Both of them did. The detective rarely got to see his three grandchildren. His wife had divorced him four years ago in 2005, a very depressing year for Gustav. 

This man had just got out of work at J.G.C. Tallmon Station on Oaklynn Boulevard. There was were his office was, were his life was. He had walked four blocks to the park. This was were he thought everything over. He would think his life over, all 42 years of it. He had just been on a case of a disappearance at the University of Providence. People said that in the Wedlock University astronomy center, a young woman had disappeared on the top floor of the building. 

Gustav had not been on this case long. Several other students said that they had last seen her in the computer laboratory. The missing woman had said she had saw a star, uncontrollably bright through her telescope. Because of this she stayed in the computer lab searching all of the computers for information. 

Gustav had not been in the building himself, only questioning students about her disappearance. He was mostly alarmed by the star that the woman spoke of. What did she mean? Why was she so worried about it? No one had believed her when she spoke of the star. Gustav did though. It was plain stupid not to. That woman had seen a bright star, so what. That's so unbelievable. 

The man looked up into the sky, at the trillions of stars that she may have saw. The thought of a woman going ballistic over a stupid star was totally insane. There was something to this. Even though Gustav had never seen the star, he new that the woman was an awarded student for astronomy, and new what she was talking about. She kept saying that it was like something alive. The strangest thing Gustav had ever heard of.

Gustav walked past the flower which was nothing but dirt now. The park was large , and filled with many different nature dirt paths to take. Walking through Dormaski park was like walking in the woods. Gustav new all the paths though. This was his favorite part of the city. Providence was his world. It had been ever since he had moved there with his wife and kids twenty years ago. 

At home he lied in bed thinking of the past events of his life. He didn't want to remember his childhood. His father had beaten him like trash then for no reason. He had been an only child. He remembered seeing his father die in the hospital when Gustav was only a boy of seventeen. He didn't care though. He couldn't care less if that maniac died after what he did to him in his childhood. 

Gustav shook his head to shake away the awful memory. It made him sick. He sat up in his bed and stared out the window of his apartment. His apartment was better than most in the city. A city were the average capita was 10,000. And for the rest of the state. Most apartments were more like tenements and some of the back streets weren't even paved, but dirt that turned to wet slippery mud when it rained. His apartment was carpeted, had comfortable beds, furniture, electricity, and even a balcony. Not like most of the apartments here. This was once even voted one of the poorest cities in the United States. Drugs were all over the streets and gangs hung teenage kids for wearing an opposing color. Fortunately Gustav was able to stay away from those back streets by staying here in North Midtown, were it was safe to go out at night. The balcony showed a view of the midtown area were he could see the buildings for several blocks. His office at Tallmon Station was 10 blocks away, which was ½ a mile away from his apartment building. The buildings were only 4 or 5 floors high each except the taller 10 storey buildings that were major office buildings, condominiums, and hospitals. Despite Providence being a large city of 407,000 citizens and covering 40 square miles. The state had outlawed buildings over 120 feet high nearly forty years ago due to the danger of high winds which occurred in Providence often since it was in a large plain covering over 1,000 square miles, which was surrounded by mountains with valleys that wind shifted into the city. Though the 10 square mile island of Konradsohoe was the worst. It was the heart of the city which Gustav lived in. He wanted to go to bed and sleep for a while. That was the way he slept was to go to bed at about 10:PM and get up at 2:AM until he had to go to work at 7:00AM.

His phone suddenly rang. He reached over a pile of garbage beside his bed to get his phone. 

"Hello," he greeted.

"Hi," a woman said, "this is Sheryl."

Sheryl Carnebe was a woman that he worked with at Tallmon. She was the famous girl for her outgoing attitude. It was once said that she molested a young boy, but she was able to escape persecution because of it being kept a secret. Although she had gotten pregnant from the boy. Nobody hardly ever talked to her because of this and neither did Gustav. But he tried to be nice and talk to her unlike most people did. He felt it unreasonable to get to the woman because of her love for kids. He held the phone closer to his ear to hear her better.

"Hey Sheryl," he greeted, "what's going on tonight at the office?"

"Well it's hard to tell you since you should know it all already."

"What are you talking about?"

"The girl and the accident at Wedlock."

"Oh," Gustav mumbled, "have you found anything useful yet to the investigation?"

He could hear Sheryl going through some papers. Obviously she was looking for something. It seemed to take a while but finally he heard a reply.

"Yes," she replied, "it's strange though."

"What are you talking about," Gustav asked.

"Well I was there today with a student that was obviously her boyfriend. He told me that the girl was acting strange the few nights before she disappeared."

"How strange?"

"According to him, she was going into the stargazing room every night after the floor closed."

"I've heard this story before."

"No. Listen. He said that every time she went in there, she would take some device from the lab. He told me it looked kind of like a computer chip."

"A computer chip?""Yes," Sheryl informed, "probably a very important chip. The man said that it was something the professor told them was important for calculating the speed of comets within the solar system. You ask me, she was just out of her mind."

Gustav sighed. What a story. This was going to take forever to figure out. What he needed was something like a hair or something from her and that could lead to a clue of where she was. It would take time though to find out.

"Maybe she just jumped out a window or something," Gustav smirked, "she was crazy right?"

"Sure," Sheryl laughed, "but I think that you should come down here at six tomorrow."

"Why that early?"

"You and me are going to investigate the laboratory.""But it won't be open."

"That's the idea," Sheryl explained, "we've been in the computer lab but not in the main laboratory. I also need to show you something. Bye."

"Bye," Gustav said and hung up.


End file.
